 Hamed Shafia, 18, outside court last week. (Sun Media file photo)
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KINGSTON -- A Montreal mother, father and son accused of murdering four family members were attacked and subjected to death threats within hours of arriving at a detention centre in Napanee, Sun Media has learned.
Hamed Shafia, 18, was assaulted by other inmates at the Quinte Detention Centre when he was allowed out of his cell for yard time.
Jail staff had allowed him to exercise with other protective prisoners who were thought to be compatible.
He was not seriously hurt and did not require hospitalization.
"There was an allegation of inmate-on-inmate assault by one of these individuals," said Stuart McGetrick, of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
He would not say which of the three Shafia family members filed the complaint Saturday.
McGetrick said police are now investigating.
The assault raises questions about whether three, high-profile accused mass killers can be kept safe if they are not granted bail while their complex case winds it way through the courts.
"I don't think they're going to be safe," Jean-Claude Dube, the Montreal lawyer who represents Hamed Shafia, told the Whig-Standard yesterday (tues).
He did not have any firsthand information about the attack on his client.
Hamed Shafia's father, Mohammed, was not attacked.
Tooba Mohammed Yahya, who is being held in the separate women's section at Quinte, has not been attacked.
"It's just a matter of time," a prison source said.
Other inmates have been screaming threats and calling Yahya "baby killer." She is permitted daily exercise by herself.
The two Shafia men were being held in an eight-cell wing of the maximum-security section known as unit 1B. They have now been moved to the jail's segregation unit, or hole, where they are isolated from other inmates, held in single cells.
The trio arrived at Quinte last Thursday, after they appeared in court in Kingston for the first time, following their arrest Wednesday. Each is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
The parents and their oldest son are accused of scheming together to kill three other Shafia children, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with Rona Amir Mohammed, 50.
She was Mohammed Shafia's first wife, though he had concealed that fact since moving to Canada two years ago.
The four women were found dead June 30 inside a submerged car discovered in a lock at Kingston Mills.
"At this point, the detention centre is supposed to put them under protection ... how they intend to do it I do not know," Dube said, in an interview yesterday.
Because Quinte is so overcrowded, some protective custody inmates -- those who must be isolated from others -- are double or triple bunked.
Sex offenders, child killers and some other high-profile inmates are despised by the general population and could be killed if not kept isolated.
Quinte does not have a protective custody unit for women. In some cases, women who require segregation are moved into the men's section of the facility, a practice that creates new logistical security problems.
Montreal lawyer Waice Ferdoussi, who represents Mohammed Shafia, also had not heard of the assault when he was interviewed Monday.
He said he planned to contact senior officials at Quinte.
Ferdoussi accused Kingston Police of whipping up anger at the three accused.
"They made such a huge suspicion and publicity out of this honour crime business," he said. "This policeman from Kingston, Stephen Tanner ... is saying all kinds of nonsense. He ... makes the people angry."
At a news conference announcing the charges, Police Chief Stephen Tanner was asked about allegations by relatives of one victim that these were "honour" killings.
Tanner said it is open to speculation whether the conduct of some of the victims "was a part of a motive within the family."
"Muslim, Afghan ... they're presumed innocent," Ferdoussi said.
High-profile inmates who face threats are sometimes moved back and forth between different detention centres in Ontario in a bid to reduce their visibility.
Dube said it's problematic if they are shipped too far away. All three have separate lawyers, all based in Montreal.
"We don't want them to be detained too far away from Kingston," he said.
Prison sources say the trio also face a constant stream of invective because racism is rampant in the facility.
They are scheduled to appear in court again Aug. 6.
Dube and Ferdoussi said they haven't seen any of the evidence against their clients.
"No disclosure at all," Dube said.
A date for a bail hearing hasn't been set.
